


She Really Does Like Dance Uma Thurman

by crowleyshouseplant



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-03
Updated: 2017-03-03
Packaged: 2018-09-26 13:54:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9901265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crowleyshouseplant/pseuds/crowleyshouseplant
Summary: Before Chloe eventually realizes that Lucifer Morningstar really is the devil, she finds out that Mazikeen is a demon.





	

Mazikeen was frying bacon. She swayed in the kitchen to Fallout Boy, arms above her head, occasionally poking and prodding at strips of pig flesh in their spitting bath of grease. It was a late morning, the kind where the sun pooled through the halfway opened blinds, and Mazikeen occupied the very center of it.

"Breakfast?" Chloe asked as she poured herself a cup of coffee. Normally Mazikeen didn't do breakfasts. Or cooking. Or grocery shopping.

She liked days like these. She had the whole day to spend with Trixie. Mazikeen normally disappeared off to Club Lux if she didn't have a bounty to look for. Chloe used to try to figure out if Mazikeen's enthusiasm for hunting humans was a performance to keep up the show of being a demon or if it was genuine. She'd since given it up as a futile job, and she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know the answer.

"I like bacon," Mazikeen said. "Trixie does too. She's been stealing pieces when she thinks I'm not looking." She glanced briefly at Chloe with something like pride in her eyes.

As always, Chloe briefly wondered how and where Mazikeen had gained the scar over her eyebrow. But then she blushed, embarrassed and ashamed that she hadn't realized that of course Trixie would want bacon--Dan used to fry bacon every so often. And then she wondered why concern regarding Trixie taking bacon without asking was only the third thought that had come to her. She got to her feet and gently took the rubber handled tongs from Mazikeen. "I can take it from here."

The grease spat and Chloe flinched as it splashed her forehead.

"It's an ornery batch," Mazikeen said as she flopped to the chair that Chloe had abandoned, stashing her feet on the table. Her feet were bare, her nails painted a pastel pink.

Chloe caught herself staring at the polish, surprised it wasn't some shade of black, and turned hurriedly back to the bacon, which was just about to burn on the edges.

"You look like you need a night off," Mazikeen said. "You should come out with me and Linda. We're gonna have a lot of fun tonight."

Chloe turned just in time to see Mazikeen smile like a very pleased cat as she took a long drink from Chloe's coffee cup. Sighing, Chloe pulled another cup from the cupboard and refilled it. "I can't. I was thinking I could take Trixie to the movies or something. Moana is still playing, right? It's my turn with her tonight," she added, anxiously.

Mazikeen scoffed. "So?"

"So," Chloe said, stammering a little as she plucked bacon from the pan, "I don't think what you and Linda have in mind is particularly age appropriate."

"Just because we're bad doesn't mean we're bad all the time," Mazikeen said, her voice sly. She pulled her feet from the table, and walked appraisingly towards Chloe. "We could do a night in. We could even put one of your singing animated features on for Trixie, even though she'd probably prefer something more mature because she's a smart kid."

"I don't want to abandon Trixie in front of the tv." Chloe ran her hands through her hair, wishing she had remembered her hairband to tie it up in a ponytail. It would have been more appropriate for frying bacon.

"Who said anything about abandoning? We'll more than likely be forced to watch it with her as a distraction from Linda's terribly boring project." Mazikeen leaned forward so that her elbows were on the countertop, her chin supported on her fists. "One of Linda's close relatives is getting married. They need bags of fruits and nuts to give to the invited family and guests."

"What?" Chloe asked. She hadn't been to a wedding In a while, but the only bags they'd had at her wedding to Dan were filled with birdseed since rice wasn't appropriate anymore.

"It's tradition," Mazikeen said like it was something everybody knew. "Zoroastrian tradition. Anyway, Linda's been so busy she hasn't had a chance to do it, and the wedding is tomorrow. So she's asked me to help, and now I'm enlisting your help, especially since you owe me like several times over."

Mazikeen dazzled her with a smile so bright that Chloe had to duck to hide her blush. "How many guests?"

"Several hundred."

Mazikeen shrugged like it was no big deal, but Chloe banged her tongs against the pan. "Several hundred? And we're only beginning to make them now?"

"Yeah--it's kind of an all or nothing wedding. They're even going to have doves because they're supposed to be romantic or something. Me? Never saw what was romantic about a bird that's practically a flying rodent."

Chloe frowned. "I think you're talking about pigeons."

"Pretty sure I'm not. So are you in, Decker?"

"I'm in," Chloe said.

Later that night, Chloe, Mazikeen, and Trixie went over to Linda's house. Chloe had never been there before, though obviously Mazikeen had. She didn't even ring the doorbell, just crossed the threshold like she owned the place, calling out a hello to Linda as she shrugged out of her jacket and draped it over the back of a chair. Linda didn't seem to mind as she greeted Mazikeen with a hug, and then gave another one to Chloe, and then asked Trixie if it was alright to hug her too. Trixie shook her head, so Linda shook her hand, and Chloe had never seen Trixie seem so pleased about anything.

They chose a movie, an older Disney one that had come out a few years back, and then they set to work. They filled green bags embroidered with gold thread full of Jordan almonds, pistachios, pecans, and walnuts. With tape they attached sugar cones (not for eating, as Linda explained to Trixie) wrapped in green paper featuring Zoroaster. There were paper plates heaped with munchables such as crackers and candies and chips. While they worked, Mazikeen told stories about the bounties they had hunted, though Chloe could tell she was making it age appropriate for Trixie while the movie played on in the background.

"Do you ever wear your scary mask so that no one knows who you are?"

Chloe smiled. "Your scary mask, Maze?"

But Mazikeen's attention was focused entirely on Trixie. "I'm not afraid of my prey knowing who I am."

"But what if they get away, and then they go on a quest to kill you back?"

Mazikeen slouched deeper in her chair, arms folded across her chest. Her hair fell down her back, sliding over the soft line of her shoulder blades. She laughed, and Chloe smiled to hear it. "They would never get away from me."

Trixie giggled. "I want to see your mask again!"

"Yes, Maze," Linda said. A half filled sack was limp in her hands, entirely forgotten as she attempted to catch Mazikeen's eye, even though Mazikeen was pretending not to see. Chloe glanced back and forth between them, acutely aware that they knew something she didn't, and that Trixie was somehow in on it.

"Yes, Mazikeen," Chloe said, echoing Linda. "I'd like to see your mask too."

Mazikeen's smiled conspiratorially with Trixie. "It was a pretty cool mask, huh?" Trixie nodded excitedly. "Okay. Close your eyes." Trixie did, and Mazikeen turned towards Linda and Chloe, one finger held against her lips as the skin on the left side of her face degenerated until half of her looked like a zombie. 

Chloe recoiled backwards, her hand over her mouth. Linda seemed unsurprised but she dabbed at her eyes with the cuff of her sleeve.

"What is going on?" Chloe asked. Her voice trembled even though she had to pretend for Trixie that everything was fine.

"Isn't it scary, Mommy?" Trixie had opened her eyes, and she looked absolutely delighted at Mazikeen's transformation. "It looks so real!"

Chloe nodded, not sure she trusted herself to speak. That time they had gone to the bar, and Mazikeen had talked about being a demon, how she had always talked about being a demon in hell, torturing people. The blood drained from Chloe's face as she stared at Mazikeen, who was making fake scary faces to make Trixie giggle. She fixated on the thin strip of tongue she could see between her teeth.

A demon was her roommate. A demon was her daughter's friend.

And if Mazikeen was a demon, like really a demon, then that meant that Lucifer's claim about really being Lucifer was--her brain shortcircuited and she blinked rapidly. Mazikeen was speaking to her daughter, but her words were slurred and Chloe couldn't understand the words. "Trixie," she finally managed, "why don't you go back to your movie? That sounds fun, right?"

Trixie gave her That Look which meant she knew that Chloe wanted to talk about adult stuff. When Trixie was safely parked in front of the television, Chloe dragged her chair closer to Mazikeen's. "What the hell, Maze?" she demanded even though she wasn't even sure what sort of answer she was looking for or even what she was actually asking.

Mazikeen's face slowly returned to normal: her brown skin, completely smooth, devoid of anything like an imperfection. Chloe had always thought that Mazikeen was beautiful, but now she didn't know what to think.

Linda had risen to her feet, traveling around the small folding table they had set up so that she could kneel beside Mazikeen. Her hands were folded over Maze's. "What happened to you down there?"

Chloe latched onto something that she could understand. "Did someone do this to you?"

Mazikeen snatched her hand from Linda's, and rose so quickly that her hips bumped the table. Candy and nuts fell from a bag that had not been tied closed. "Let's get one thing straight. I did things to people in hell. They didn't do things to me." She breathed sharply, like when she was about to fight. "This is what I hate about being here on Earth." She forced out a skin crawling laugh. "I have to hide who I am, every day, with this silly glamor." It fell away, just like it had before, and as it did she kept speaking. "This is my face, this is my voice." 

The face she had revealed to Trixie for whatever reason (and Chloe fully intended to find out why) continued to fade. ""I am one of the Lilim, a child of Lilith!"  

Strands of muscle and cartilage stretched over her skull. Her hair grew so thin it could no longer cover the coiled lengths of her brain. Without its lid, her left eye grew bulbous, overly round. The skin of her neck rotted away to reveal her spine and bits of esophagus. "I a na jzt a outy huhter!" She flipped a paper plate holding bits of chip and tore it in half, bringing one of the pieces to cover the skeletal half of her face. "Huh?"

"I don't know," Chloe said.

Linda reached for Mazikeen's shoulder. "Maze."

Trixie had turned away from the television. "Mom? Are you okay?"

"I'm just fine, baby," Chloe called out as Maze lowered the plate, glamor restored, nothing wrong, everything normal.

 It was Linda who returned to her seat first, and began to refill the bag with shaking fingers. Chloe followed her example, and tried to focus on making sure that the number of Jordan almonds did not outnumber the pistachios and the dried fruit. Mazikeen followed suit, though she appeared to be much more careless regarding the balance of the goodies within.

Linda cleared her throat.

Mazikeen seemed to brace herself with a slight roll of her eyes.

"When I saw Lucifer's true face for the first time," Linda began, "I was, quite frankly, deeply--"

"Surprised?" Mazikeen asked.

Chloe was still processing the fact that Lucifer had a true face. She imagined Lucifer with a rotting visage, and pushed the image aside.

"That may be an understatement," Linda was saying. "But we are friends, Mazikeen. I can't help but feel that my reaction to Lucifer affected you. As you said, not your face, not your voice. But you only ever showed a glimpse of your true face to Trixie."

And why had Maze chosen to reveal herself to Trixie--even though she hadn't, not really, since Trixie thought it wasn't real. The conversation was surreal. She could hardly focus on the bag in front of her. She fiddled with a trailing golden thread.

"A child is easy to deceive," Mazikeen said in a low voice. "And besides, I didn't expect you to be the jealous type, Linda." She reached over and bit into one of the potato chips.

"I'm not jealous. I just thought we were in a different place." Linda seemed horribly, terribly sad even though she did her best to hide it by keeping her hands busy.

Chloe stole glances from one and the other as she handed Linda a green cone to tape to the bag she had just finished.

"Which do you think is handsomer," Mazikeen said, "mine or Lucifer's? Not that you'd be able to answer truly of course. He's the Morningstar. Whatever you saw was an interpretation."

"Was your 'mask' just an interpretation?" Chloe asked, without quite meaning to speak.

Both Linda and Mazikeen turned towards Chloe, as if they had forgotten she was still there. Then Mazikeen looked back towards Linda. "It appears Miss Doubting Thomas might finally be turning into a believer."

Chloe felt sour. "It's not so difficult to imagine my skepticism. Even you thought he had a psychological--" she fumbled for the word with her hand. "I can't do this. I--we need to go home."

"I completely understand," Linda said.

The women rose to their feet, gathering their things and bringing them to the kitchen. Mazikeen trailed after Linda. "Don't be mad," she said through her smiles.

Chloe turned away, suddenly embarrassed as she double and triple checked her purse. Still, Linda and Mazikeen lingered in the kitchen, and Chloe caught a glimpse of Linda standing on her tiptoes as she embraced Mazikeen tightly around the shoulders. Mazikeen let her, and they swayed slightly together until Mazikeen pushed Linda away. "Alright, alright," Mazikeen said. "There's no need to be so pathetic."

Linda cupped Mazikeen's cheek in her hand. "It's not pathetic." And then she pressed a kiss to her cheek before shooing her out of the kitchen.

Trixie walked between them, one hand in Chloe's, the other in Mazikeen's. They lifted her off the ground with every other step so that Trixie squealed with laughter. When they were in the car, Mazikeen rolled the windows down and turned the radio on loud, her head nodding to the beat. Chloe was glad for the noise to fill the awkward empty spaces. If Trixie noticed, she pretended not to, for which Chloe was grateful. She had a smart kid, a perceptive kid, and sometimes it made things difficult, especially when she and Dan had separated, which is what led to her and Mazikeen becoming roommates in the first place.

Chloe stole a glance at Chloe as they waited for the traffic light. Her legs were too long for the passenger side, and she had such presence. Her profile was highlighted in red light, and even though the glamor was in place, Chloe could still see the skeletal visage it hid. Maybe it was her imagination, or maybe it no longer fooled her.

Mazikeen turned towards her, her hands raised in impatience. "It's green."

"Right," Chloe muttered as she eased the car forward.

What had really happened was that Mazikeen had tricked her. At first, at least. But then, it hadn't turned out like that at all. They had had fun. They had reached out to her. Chloe couldn't imagine living alone. She had Trixie of course, but it was also a relief that she shared the space with another adult.

How old was Mazikeen? Older than the she looked.

How long had she been in hell? How much of that experience--that trauma--had shaped her, had created joy in torturing and hunting humans for bounty? Cold realization settled in Chloe's belly. That incident with her father's murder. Mazikeen had done that for her. That's why she had been so happy, why she had thrust the newspaper in front of Chloe.

"Stop sign," Mazikeen said.

Chloe braked harder than usual.

"Someone's distracted. Maybe I should be driving."

Chloe checked her rearview. There was no one behind her so she turned the keys, handed them to Mazikeen, and exited the driver's seat. They crossed each other's path and Mazikeen smiled. "Cool. You never let me drive."

Chloe hoped she wouldn't regret it, but Mazikeen seemed more focused than Chloe felt, even if she did speed.

The wind whipped Mazikeen's hair as it came in through the open windows. Her hands were gripped on the wheel, and silent laughter seemed to come from her open mouth as she sang along with the radio.

When they arrived home, Chloe put Trixie to bed. Trixie wrapped her small arms around her neck and whispered that she loved her, and as always, Chloe closed her eyes, so grateful that Trixie was her daughter.

Mazikeen was still up when Chloe went down the stairs. Her feet were on the table of course, and she was eating cold bacon from the Tupperware. Even though it was nearly ten o'clock, Chloe went to the coffeepot, emptying the old coffee from that morning, and refilling the tank. "Coffee?" she asked Mazikeen.

"Hell yeah," Mazikeen said. "Should we make other breakfast foods? Linda says that breakfast for dinner or as a midnight snack is the best."

Chloe smiled. "Pancakes or waffles?"

"Why don't we live dangerously and have both?"

Chloe figured that Mazikeen would know all about living dangerously. But then, so did she see. She'd had her close experiences after all. So many in the past few months it seemed. And in a way, they did fit together. She caught the bad guys. Mazikeen presumably did what demons did to them when they found their way to hell. And now that she had abandoned hell with Lucifer--she did what Chloe did too: went after bad people, and then brought them to the hands of the law.

"We're just going to have waffles," Chloe said. Mostly because she hated flipping pancakes. She couldn't do it just by swinging the pan anymore, and they always seemed to tear in the center when she used the spatula.

It didn't take long to make the waffle batter--it never did. In fact, Chloe realized she should make waffles more often for Trixie, even if they weren't technically part of a nutritious breakfast. Childhood didn't last forever.

"You know what would go great with that?"

Chloe jumped when she realized how close Mazikeen was standing to close to her. She was still eating bacon. "What?"

"Chocolate chips."

"You are just as bad as Trixie."

But she poured some in, and Mazikeen put her hand on hers so the chips fell faster and faster, until the bag was nearly all gone. She made two waffles for the both of them, and Mazikeen filled each hollow square with maple syrup.

Chloe poked at her waffle with her fork, waiting for the slice of butter she had put on top to melt. "You know," she said.

"Yes?" Mazikeen said around a mouthful of waffle.

"This is your home too. You don't have to keep the glamor on all the time if you don't want to--although, I would appreciate it if you kept it there when Trixie's around." She hoped the reason was obvious. 

Mazikeen put her for down, and stared at Chloe.

"What?" Chloe said. "Do I have something on my face?" Which was silly, since she hadn't even had a bite of waffle yet.

"Why?"

"Because of what you said. I want you to feel comfortable here. It's your home too."

"So?" Mazikeen ate several bites of waffle. "Linda wasn't wrong. I feel this is ten times more delicious than waffles usually are."

"I can't--I can't even pretend that I understand your situation," Chloe said. The butter had melted, but still she just poked at her waffle. "But, I know I'd hate having to wear makeup every day, all day, never taking it off. I don't think I would have the energy. So if you want--you are always welcome to let the glamor drop. Because this is your home too."

Mazikeen voice sounded guarded. "Thanks."

When Chloe glanced up, the glamor was gone. She bent her head to finish her waffle before it got cold. There was nothing worse than cold waffles. They chit-chatted a little during their dinner time breakfast, and even though it had been difficult at first, Chloe found that it was quite possible to understand Mazikeen when she spoke without the glamor.

"You know," Mazikeen said after they had cleared the plates and left the dirty dishes for tomorrow, "I always did tell Lucifer that you'd take it well."

They lingered in the hallway, Chloe at the base of the stair. Mazikeen made no move to go down the hallway to her own room. Instead, she approached, and draped herself across the banister. Now that the façade was gone, now that the last question had been answered, the puzzle pieces all fit together to shape a picture--not one she had expected but a picture nonetheless. Chloe wondered if she shouldn't be more concerned that Mazikeen was a demon, but Maze had done nothing to harm them--and actions were the only things that mattered. The growing fondness that Chloe had felt for Mazikeen seemed to grow and become even more present.

"You should see the way you're looking at me right now," Mazikeen said, her voice and eyes lazy. She braced herself on her elbows. "It's almost as if you want to kiss me."

The glamor shimmered back in place, and it must have been stronger than before because this time Chloe couldn't see past it. Or maybe it really had just been her imagination.

"What'd you do that for?" Chloe asked.

Mazikeen shrugged. "I figured it would increase my chances." She winked. "What do you think? One good night kiss?"

Chloe stepped closer to Mazikeen. "I meant what I said."

Mazikeen stood to her full height as she met Chloe. The glamor faded. Chloe reached for her right cheek, and she kept her eyes open as she pressed her lips to Mazikeen's. It took Mazikeen only a few moments to kiss her back. Her hand was in Chloe's hair, loosening her ponytail. Chloe put her other hand to Mazikeen's cheek, and she barely noticed the edge of molars, the thin slick feel of her tongue against her hand.

They parted.

"That wasn't as chaste as I thought It was going to be," Mazikeen said. She was smiling, but her eyes were serious.

"Good night," Chloe said.

"Whatever," Mazikeen said back.

As Chloe brushed her teeth, she recalled what she had learned about the pit. The torture, the loneliness, the hopelessness. In her tee and sweatpants, she tip-toed down the stairs and found that Mazikeen was still up, flipping her knives in the darkness. "Come back for more?" she called out when Chloe had thought she had been silent.

"I just thought that you might not want to be alone in the dark," Chloe said, as she settled on the cushion.

Mazikeen made an impatient noise but she didn't ask Chloe to leave. Eventually, the flipping of her knife slowed until it was safely put away. Her head drooped against the back of the couch, slowly sliding until she rested on Chloe's shoulder. The back of her hand rested in the cup of Chloe's palm. They slept, and did not wake until long after the sun had risen, to Trixie asking if there were any waffles left. 

**Author's Note:**

> Dialogue inspired by this scene: http://halftruthsandhyperbole.tumblr.com/post/6883645967


End file.
